Sep 22, 2010

Low fat southern style black eye peas with ham, made in your crock pot! It's really a bean rather than a pea, and an excellent source of calcium, folate, vitamin A and fiber. A perfect recipe for that leftover ham bone, but a ham steak would work great too. These have a mildly spicy flavor, you can adjust the heat to your taste. I served this over brown rice but this would also be great to eat as a soup.

I get a lot of requests for crock pot recipes, so I decided to experiment with dry beans in my slow cooker. I was prepared to call it a loss if they didn't turn out good. Boy was I was pleasantly surprised! The beans cooked to perfection and this couldn't be easier. I'm excited to make some of my other dry bean recipes in the crock pot now that I know how good they came out. Crock pot recipes tend to need more seasoning, I found seasoning the beans the last hour of cooking allowed for maximum flavor.

Soak peas overnight in 6 cups of water. The next morning, drain peas and add to slow cooker. Add 4 cups of water, bay leaves and ham. Cover and cook on high 6 hours or until the beans are tender.

After 6 hours, in a large frying pan, add oil and sauté onion, garlic, bell pepper, jalapeño pepper, and tomato until soft, about 6 minutes. Add to the slow cooker and season black eyed peas generously with salt, cumin, chili powder and black pepper. Cover and cook on high 1 to 1 1/2 more hours. Discard bay leaves and serve.

I have fallen head over heals in love with your website. I am new to the wonderful thinking of weight watchers and I heart that your recipes are good, healthy, and fun to make. Keep up the good work! I would love it if you would post a must have grocery list for my cupboards so I can just go home and throw together one of your recipes instead of needing to go out and buy the ingredients every time.

PS. I would also heart it if you wrote a cookbook. I would be first in line!

I so agree with the cookbook idea! I would buy it right away and with all the Weight Watchers out there, you could make a fortune! I have a great bean recipe I would share with you so you can try it for everyone else! I use dry pinto beans. Wash them and put them in the crock pot with 2 cans of Rotel Tomatoes (the tomatoes everyone uses with Velveeta for a dip). Then I fill the crock pot with water and let it cook all day. No fat but plenty of flavor! Also great for vegetarians. Not many points in this either! Thanks again and cheery wave from Bev (Fabric Junkie on Twitter)

Another great one! Just in time for Fall. Dried beans/peas do incredibly well in the crock pot. Recently on a whim (or lack of patience) I skipped the soaking step and there was no difference to the tate or texture. I still did a good rinse and picked them over, but was able to put them straight into the crock pot to start cooking. From what I've read the soaking step helps remove a little of the "pep" from the beans, if you know what I mean ;o)

Gina, another great way to fix beans is in a pressure cooker. I have an electronic one, I don't presoak beans, I just put a lb. package of beans in the cooker with 6 cups of liquid and whatever seasonings I want, pressure cook it for an hour and a half, the beans come out perfect every time. It sounds like a long cooking time, but you don't have to watch them, because it's electric, try it, it's an awesome way to fix beans!

I am from the South and love blacked eyed peas! However, I am not currently on WW anylonger I wish I had found your blog last year when I was! (I lost 45lbs!!)...I am thinking of slicing some Smoked Turkey Keilbasa up inside this dish...and I won't forget my cornbread!! We always served it up with sliced raw onion...its so good!

@curledwithcass- I would love to have a cookbook, hopefully it will happen soon! If you join plantoeat (you can try it free, click on the button in the left column) it's a great meal planner that you can add my recipes or recipes from other sites, then it gives you a shopping list for the week. Really helpful!

Thanks for the recipe Bev! And thanks for the encouragement to write a cookbook.

@Aicpagirl- yes, soaking gets rid of some of the gas :)

@All the latest- I always use my pressure cooker for beans! A great way to make beans in half the time!

@Notes from the Fatty- The ham bone is cooked (from leftover Ham)

Thanks Jen!! Great idea using Smoked Turkey Keilbasa! I always buy the lite one, so good! Would be perfect in this dish! Love the idea of eating it with a little onion on top. And the cornbread sounds like a great idea!

I love pinto beans cooked in the slow cooker too. Try them sometime. I make them with ham sometimes, and sometimes I add jalepenos and browned lean ground beef at the end of the cook-time. Serve with cornbread crumbled into the bowl of beans. Yum!

made this last night...and it was delicious. I used ham hocks to flavor...didn't eat. Cut up some turkey smoked sausage for the meat and omitted the ham altogether. Deleted the tomatoes and jalapenos, and subbed a can of rotel tomatoes. I wouldn't think the ham hock would change the points, since it was removed and not eaten, and didn't cook down enough to let any of the ham inside of the beans....but that's just my opinion.

Gina, I've recently learned and confirmed that if you use boiling hot water or broth instead of cold when cooking beans, they cook within 2 hours on high in the crockpot or oven, and don't need soaking overnight! Great if you want to do a crockpot bean recipe and didn't think to soak beans then night before.

Made this Saturday night. Everyone ate this dish up (husband & 3 young college students)! Only complaint was made everyone gasey (haa haa), but they ate it again for lunch the next day. Not sure how to remedy that "gas" issue. Very easy to make.

I made this the other day and I love how it came out! :) I threw everything in before I left for work and set it on low for 8 hours instead. When I came home, it was done all that I needed was to toss in the veggie saute and cook it for the remaining hour. It was very delicious and went with the leftover pernil. :)

Oh my goodness, this was great. I admit I was skeptical thinking "water, beans, ham...how is this going to be good?" But I'm so glad to be wrong.

I used a 1.1 lb ham steak since that was the smallest I could find at Trader Joe's, left out a bit of the beans because I have a small slow cooker (3.5 qt I think), and omitted the tomato. I cooked for 8 hours on LOW, then added the veggies for another hour (with extra jalapeno). Sooo good. Thanks, Gina!

AWESOME! I can just have these for dinner and nothing else. I am so glad I found your site! I have made 3 things since I found your site last week and everything turned out great. I have passed this site on to my family and friends!

OMG! This is so good. I rinsed the peas real good then put them in the 8 cups of water. Let it sit overnight. I DID NOT TOSS THE WATER. I transferred the peas with the 4 cups of water they soaked in. I left out the cumin. It came out perfect. I think next time I'll add the ham about 1/2 way through. Yummy!

Your site is WONDERFUL! So far every single thing I have cooked has been amazing! No disappointments. I cooked this tonight and was once again pleased with the outcome. Tons of flavor. Thank you soooo much for sharing wonderful recipes with the weight watchers points included...it helps me still eat wonderful food and stay on plan!

LOVE this site. Healthy, delicious recipes. Trying to eat healthier as a family since our daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Having carb counts on the recipes along with WW points is great. Every recipe we have made so far has been a hit! Today is black eyed peas with ham, my daughter loves it. We enjoyed the pumpkin cupcakes too. Thanks for having such a great site!

I made your recipe for 3 bean turkey chili and I love it. Made this recipe today . I used ham hocks ( just for flavor) and used all of the jalpeno (seeds included) so i could eliminate the chili powder and cumin. It was really great for New Years Day dinner. Thank you for your posting your recipes. If you do ever put out a cookbook I will support.

I was adding this to my menu for the week to use leftover ham hocks from making this for New Years Day. Then, I remembered that this was the first Skinnytaste recipe that I ever made. Awwwwwwww!!!! It's so delicious and they've all been winners ever since.

When growing up in Louisiana, my mom would cook fresh peas with okra from the garden. I made these with a few small changes and they were amazing! I used 1/2 lb dried black eyed peas, subbed the tomato for a can of Rotel tomatoes, used half beef stock and half water (since I didn't have a ham bone handy), swapped the chili powder for Tony Cachere's and cayenne, and added 8 oz frozen chopped okra for the last hour. My husband had never had black eyed peas and even he enjoyed it. I always enjoy making dried beans in the Crock Pot and will be repeating this one many times!

These were delicious! I had never tried black eyed peas before, so I was a bit afraid...but hubby and I both had two helpings. I didn't have a jalapeno, so I added a bit of hot sauce at the end. So good!

Just made this dish - another winner! Incase it helps, I always cook dried beans in my crock pot and have never soaked them over night first. I just throw them in, cover them with water (seasonings depending on what dish I'm making) and cook them on high for about 4 hours. I've done 15 beans, black beans and now these, and they always turn out great. Just thought I'd share incase you want to skip the first step. Thanks again for all your wonderful recipes!

I've been making this for years for New Years day since marrying my husband who is from the south. It's a good luck dish for southerners, or maybe just my husbands family. I got the recipe from my MIL but changed it to make it easier for myself. Using a crock pot, (she never did) I put 1lb of black eyed peas & then layer 1 1/2 ibs of ham hocks or smoked neck bones on top of the peas. Chopped onion on top of the meat & 1 can of hot rotel & 1 can of petite diced tomatoes. sprinkle some garlic powder & fill 1/2 crock pot with water. Cook on low for 10 hrs. 1/2 hr before it finishes chop up 1 lb of ham steaks & add to cooker so that the ham gets the flavor. Take out ham hocks, let cook & shred meat & put back into the pot. My husband likes it soupy so I always make sure when I add the Ham that there is enough water still in the pot. He said this is the best black eyed peas, he's ever eaten.

Fantastic!! Cooked these peas for dinner and my husband said they were the best black eyed peas he'd ever eaten!!!! And thats a southern boy talkin....he's been eating black eyed peas for a long time!!

You've outdone yourself again - this recipe tasted great. We made a double batch, and ended up needing to incorporate a 2nd crock pot, and then the black eyed peas were a bit tough still at the end of the cook time, so we boiled the stew for a bit in a pot on the stove.